Programme

Leopold I of Habsburg loved music passionately and was even considered a most talented composer himself. But he loved Italian music above all, which is why he invited an Italian musical delegation to work at his court in Vienna. It included Antonio Bertali, Francesco Conti , Giovanni Felice Sances and Antonio Draghi among others. But the emperor’s admiration did not stop there. During his lifetime, he amassed an impressive collection of scores by foreign composers, including a sacred composition by Giovanni Paolo Colonna, his majestic Mass in E Minor, which is regarded as a precursor of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Another significant piece is Antonio Draghi’s El Prometeo – performed here in a shorter version, completed by Leonardo García Alarcón – which he composed for the birthday celebrations of Maria Anna of Austria, Leopold I’s mother-in-law. By combining these two works, Alarcón and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur provide a stunning sample of the sacred and profane music that was performed at the court in Vienna in the seventeenth century.